Matthew Pope (Deputy Director, Lithic Analyst)

Senior Research Fellow (UCL). Senior Geoarch (ASE)

Currently directing projects at and Beedings the Valdoe, Matthew supervised excavations at Boxgrove between 1995 and 1997 and continues to study aspects of assemblage taphonomy and technology at the site. His current research is aimed at reconstructing hominid activity at the horse butchery site (GTP 17) and the interpretation of hominid landuse patterns in the Middle Pleistocene. Matthew completed his PhD at Southampton University in 2002. He is a member of the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins at Southampon (CAHO) and the Lithic Studies Society. Matthew is also a tutor at the Sussex Institute (University Of Sussex).

Contact: m.pope@ucl.ac.uk

Research Interests:

- Patterning in the use, discard and transportation of artifacts and raw materials by early humans.

- The taphonomy and behavioural controls over Acheulean assemblage formation.

- The role of bifacial technology and tool discard in Lower Palaeolithic hunting strategies and social organization.

- Neaderthal behavioural adaptations to European envrionments

- Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic occupation in Southern Britain..

- Visualization and simulation of prehistoric landscapes.

Publications:

Roberts, M.B., Parfitt, S.A., Pope, M.I. and Wenban Smith, F.F. 1997. Boxgrove, West Sussex: Rescue excavations of a Lower Palaeolithic landsurface (Boxgrove Project B 1989-1991). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 63: 303-358

Pope M..I. 1999. Managing the Early Prehistoric Heritage of Brighton and Hove. Consultation document for Brighton and Hove City Council.

Pope M.I. 2000. Lower Palaeolithic Surface finds from the northern scarp of the Downs at Kithurst Hill, West Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections 138.

Pope, M.I. 2001. New investigations at Slindon Bottom Palaeolithic Site, West Sussex: an interim report. Lithics. 22: 3-10.

Roberts, M.B. and Pope, M.I. 2001. Mapping the Boxgrove early Middle Pleistocene deposits across the coastal plain of West Sussex and eastern Hampshire. English Heritage.

Pope, M.I. 2002. The significance of biface-rich assemblages: An examination of the behavioural controls on lithic assemblage formation in the Lower Palaeolithic. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Southampton.

Pope, M.I. 2003. The Earliest occupation of Sussex: Recent research and future objectives. In Rudling, D. (ed) The archaeology of Sussex to A.D. 2000. Heritage Marketing and Publication Ltd. 17-29.

Pope, M.I. 2004. Behavioural implications of biface discard: assemblage variability and land-use at the Middle Pleistocene site of Boxgrove. In Lithics In Action. Lithic Studies Society Occasional Paper 24. Oxbow Books, Oxford.

Pope, M.I. 2004. The Raised Beach Mapping Project. Archaeology International 6

Pope, M.I 2005. Observations on the relationship between Palaeolithic individuals and artefact scatters at the Middle Pleistocene site of Boxgrove, UK. In Gamble C.S. and Porr, M. The Individual In the Palaeolithic. Routledge.

Pope, M., Russel, K. & Watson, K. 2006. Biface form and structured behaviour in the Acheulean. Lithics: The Journal of the Lithic Studies Society 27: 44–57.

Pope, M. & Maxted, A. 2008. A refitting biface reduction scatter from Newhaven,
East Sussex. Lithics: The Journal of the Lithic Studies Society 29: 55–63.

Pope, M. 2009. Comment to O. Bar-Yosef and P. Van De Meer, The Chaine Operatoire Approach in Middle
Paleolithic Archaeology. Curren Anthropology, Volume 50, Number 1.

Roberts, M.B., Parfitt, S.A. and Pope, M.I. In prep. The archaeology of the Middle Pleistocene hominid site at Boxgrove, West Sussex, UK. Excavations 1991-1996. London: English Heritage Monograph Series.

Educational Background:

1990 -1993 B.Sc. Archaeology. University of Wales, College Cardiff.
1997 -2002 Ph.D. Archaeology. University of Southampton.